United States of America, Plaintiff-Appellee-Cross-Appellant v. Lamont Andre Brown, Defendant-Appellant-Cross-Appellee

347 F.3d 1095, 62 Fed. R. Serv. 1140, 2003 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 9371, 2003 U.S. App. LEXIS 21977, 2003 WL 22434369
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedOctober 28, 2003
Docket01-30158, 01-30181
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 347 F.3d 1095 (United States of America, Plaintiff-Appellee-Cross-Appellant v. Lamont Andre Brown, Defendant-Appellant-Cross-Appellee) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

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United States of America, Plaintiff-Appellee-Cross-Appellant v. Lamont Andre Brown, Defendant-Appellant-Cross-Appellee, 347 F.3d 1095, 62 Fed. R. Serv. 1140, 2003 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 9371, 2003 U.S. App. LEXIS 21977, 2003 WL 22434369 (9th Cir. 2003).

Opinion

OPINION

CANBY, Circuit Judge.

Defendant Lamont Andre Brown appeals his conviction and sentence on two counts of possessing with the intent to distribute more than five grams of crack cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a) and 841(b)(1)(B). Brown contends that his conviction must be reversed because a government witness testified falsely to the grand jury, and because the trial judge quashed a subpoena and excluded evidence concerning the immigration status of the government’s informant. Brown also contends that the district court erred in basing his sentence on possession of cocaine alleged in a count of which the jury found him not guilty. We reject these contentions and affirm these rulings of the district court.

The government cross-appeals the district court’s refusal to consider an additional 34 grams of crack cocaine in determining Brown’s sentencing range under the Sentencing Guidelines. We conclude that the government is correct, and we accordingly vacate Brown’s sentence and remand for resentencing.

Background

The government’s ease depended heavily on the testimony of Jose de la Torre, an informant whom the government had arrested for immigration violations in 1998. To avoid imprisonment for illegal reentry after having been deported for drug trafficking, de la Torre cooperated with the government in various undercover drug investigations. De la Torre’s immigration status was unusual to say the least. At one point, government agents drove de la Torre hundreds of miles to the Canadian border so that he could walk out of the country and immediately re-enter, placing him in a new parole status to aid in his continued cooperation.

In 1999, de la Torre told federal agents that he thought he would be able to buy drugs from Lamont Brown, whom de la Torre knew because Brown had brought his car to de la Torre for repairs. Subsequently, in a telephone call recorded by the FBI, de la Torre arranged to meet Brown in the parking lot of a local cinema to purchase half an ounce of cocaine. Before de la Torre went to the parking lot, he was strip-searched by an FBI agent to ensure that he was not carrying any drugs. Upon arriving at the parking lot, de la Torre entered Brown’s car and returned with several grams of crack cocaine. The incident was recorded on video by an FBI surveillance team.

About a week later, de la Torre made a second purchase from Brown under virtually identical circumstances. Many months later, Brown was arrested.

The government’s only witness at Brown’s grand jury proceeding was undercover agent Kevin Mitchell, who drove with de la Torre to make the two drug buys from Brown. Mitchell testified about both events, and stated that during the transactions de la Torre had been wired with a body transmitter and recorder, which was not true. The grand jury then indicted Brown on three counts, one for each of the two transactions and a third for twelve grams of cocaine discovered in Brown’s car at the time of his arrest.

Upon reviewing the grand jury testimony, defense counsel alleged a discovery violation because no body-wire tape had been delivered to the defense. The district court held a hearing at which Mitchell testified that he had been mistaken when he testified that de la Torre had been *1098 wired. The defense moved to dismiss the indictment, and the district court denied the motion.

At trial, Brown attempted to show that de la Torre’s unusual immigration status led him to give false testimony and plant evidence in Brown’s car. Brown sought to subpoena de la Torre’s complete immigration file (the “A-File”), and to introduce the testimony of two experts to testify that de la Torre’s treatment deviated substantially from the normal treatment of immigration offenders. The district court quashed the subpoena but ordered delivery of selected documents from Brown’s A-File that were in the possession of the prosecution. The court also excluded the testimony of the two experts as tangential and confusing to the jury.

The jury convicted on the two counts arising from the arranged transactions, but acquitted on the third count for cocaine found in Brown’s car at the time of his arrest. In calculating Brown’s sentencing guideline range, the district court included the twelve grams for which the jury had acquitted Brown; the district court found by a preponderance of the evidence (and stated that it would have found under a “clear and convincing” standard) that Brown possessed the twelve grams. The district court declined to consider an additional 34 grams that the government urged on the basis of Brown’s admissions that he had sold cocaine weekly for a long period. The district court held that it would not consider the 34 grams because, by causing the aggregate amount to exceed 50 grams, it would increase the maximum penalty to which Brown was subject, in violation of Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000).

Brown then appealed his conviction and sentence, and the government cross-appealed on the sentence alone.

A. Brown’s Appeal

1. Conviction

We reject Brown’s contention that false testimony before the grand jury requires reversal of Brown’s conviction and dismissal of his indictment. Although the government concedes that Officer Mitchell, when testifying before the grand jury, falsely stated that government informant Jose de la Torre wore a body wire during the alleged drug transactions with Brown, that false testimony did not “substantially influence[] the grand jury’s decision to indict.” Bank of Nova Scotia v. United States, 487 U.S. 250, 256, 108 S.Ct. 2369, 101 L.Ed.2d 228 (1988) (internal quotation marks omitted). If that portion of the testimony is excised, Mitchell’s remaining truthful testimony provided probable cause to support the indictment. Mitchell testified that he observed de la Torre being thoroughly strip-searched and thereafter entering Brown’s car and returning with crack cocaine. See United States v. Claiborne, 765 F.2d 784, 791 (9th Cir.1985) (“if sufficient non-perjurious testimony exists to support the indictment, the courts will not dismiss the indictment due the presence of perjured testimony”). There is no evidence that Mitchell’s misrepresentation was intentional, or that the prosecutor knew of the statement’s falsity. See United States v. Mohawk, 20 F.3d 1480, 1483 n. 2 (9th Cir.1994).

We also reject Brown’s contention that the district court’s quashing of a defense subpoena and its refusal to allow the defense to call two proposed expert witnesses violated Brown’s Sixth Amendment right to confront witnesses.

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347 F.3d 1095, 62 Fed. R. Serv. 1140, 2003 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 9371, 2003 U.S. App. LEXIS 21977, 2003 WL 22434369, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-of-america-plaintiff-appellee-cross-appellant-v-lamont-ca9-2003.